ROC Blog

Rwanda Outreach and Community (ROC) Partners

ROC MK Returns to Serve Alma Mater

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

When KICS launched in 2006 it had four creative teaching staff and a group of courageous parents willing to sacrifice so that their kids could be well educated. Teachers were fully equipped with what God had provided them through their education and gifting, but had no projectors, no computer labs, no textbooks, no reader collections, no library, no lab, no internet, no stocked supply and curriculum room, no sports teams, no whiteboards, etc.

“Whiteboards” were first introduced in 2008-09 when Dr. Holly Hixson, who arrived in 2007, said it was unacceptable so she got creative because there were no whiteboards to be found in Kigali. She purchased plastic used to cover restaurant tables, painted white blocks on the wall and nailed the plastic to the wall. In time whiteboards began to be sold in Kigali. This creativity, flexibility, and sacrifice was typical and necessary of KICS earliest teachers.

Creativity, flexibility, and sacrifice also characterized those founding families. One of those founding families was the Jenkins whose five children were some of KICS first ever students. Their oldest, Sophia, was middle school age and ended up graduating from KICS in 2011 as en exceptional student on her way to Wheaton College.

Today, in KICS 9th year as a school Sophia and KICS have come full circle as Sophia is now on KICS staff as a middle school social studies teacher. Sophia didn’t experience all the extras that parents desire for their kids in primary and secondary school and yet she excelled in a loving environment with no less attention and effort that launched her to a successful four-years at one of America’s top Christian universities.

We still lack some of the opportunities and resources found in other schools, but we don’t lack creativity and passion because all of our staff are here as a call from God. They may hear fellow teachers in better-equipped schools in North America or Europe say, “what do they expect you to do without ______?” Thankfully, we have more and more, and thankfully we have God who reminds us that in our weakness his power is made perfect. Sophia is a product of family and teachers who believed that, and KICS is a product of people who allow Christ’s power to rest in them understanding that his grace is sufficient..

2 Corinthians 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Note: Sophia's parents, Dave and Jana Jenkins, were co-founders of KICS and planted Christ's Church Rwanda (CCR) having served as ROC missionaries. The Jenkins served in E. Africa for 18 years.